A revolutionary form of energy, labelled the Bloom Box, has been developed by a K R Sridhar, a former Nasa scientist of Indian origin.
The launch of the eagerly anticipated “energy server” was held last week at the California headquarters of eBay, one of the company’s first customers, and was attended by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The device, an eco-friendly device for generating power using fuel cells, has received the level of hype in Silicon Valley normally reserved for a new product from Apple.
American newspapers and websites had been filled with rumours about Bloom Box for the past month.
The Box uses fuel cells, which convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity by an electrochemical process, to generate power.
Fuel cells supposedly emit less CO² and other pollutants, as well as being much more efficient, than burning.
Scientists and entrepeneurs have been trying for years to create a low-cost option for generating and storing fuel.
The Bloom Box reportedly reverses this process, using natural gas or plant waste as fuel while producing relatively little carbon dioxide.
Sridhar(namma paya illa) said the boxes are produced from stacks of ceramic plates, which are made of sand and are painted with special green and black inks.
He declares that one such stack, or cell, can power a light bulb; 64 can power a coffee shop.
Venture capitalists have reportedly poured around $542 million into Bloom Energy's project since the work began eight years ago.
Other customers include Walmart, Federal Express and Coca Cola. The company’s first customer was Google, which uses the device to power part of its headquarters.
Nasa has been using similar devices aboard its vehicles for years but Sridhar's achievement was to make the technology affordable, he said
"Compared to the US national grid, this is about twice as efficient," said Sridhar.
"So your carbon footprint is about half. If you use a renewable fuel, you're carbon neutral."
But not everyone is convinced about the technology. Richard Miller, an innovation platform leader at the UK's Technology Strategy Board, said Bloom Energy had yet to provide data to allow a fully informed decision on the value of its technology.